Affiliate marketing as a novice is something most new bloggers will dread and run away from because this particular topic is very complicated yet simple, here I am showing you how I started my journey into affiliate marketing as a novice and how things are unfolding.
I am not going to act like am a pro, so it will be best to learn from someone who went through the same phase you are right now, this post will help you shut down all the noise and buzz that goes with Affiliate marketing
Listen up, to be frank outside few successful bloggers out there, most of the big firms you admire, consider you as prey, they hype so many books, products with white elephants promises on how you can earn enormous income in affiliate marketing but at last, you are their cash cow
This is why starting affiliate marketing as a novice requires you to enter into the mud, you need to experiment with each program that is in your niche first to determine the best converting and high click-through rate offers by yourself,
kicking off will be bumpy but it will surely pay off, just be consistent, don’t be distracted by some rip off sales funnel pages you see out there offering ambiguous promises, most of them are only making the real money by selling their e-books to you
What Exactly is Affiliate Marketing
I am not going to quote any source: Affiliate marketing is the act of promoting or recommending products & services from reputable companies which you know will be useful to your friends, audience or blog readers with an intention of having a small reward from the product owner on each sale
Traditionally, you have done affiliate marketing a couple of times without knowing it, the human relationship has a lot to do with referral and connection, right now you were either referred by search engines or a link in social media to this blog, right?
What if am offering you a chance to earn a particular percentage each time someone visits my blog from your referral ( link)
How can you make money referring people to my blog, here is the step you can take using my blog as a case study
First, you will signup to my Blog affiliate program ( which I must have set up)
Secondly, you will gain access to my affiliate dashboard where you will have access to see your referral URL ( a unique link which has a code or number to identify different affiliate members) so with your affiliate URL, it should contain your Affiliate ID which will help the system to track all the unique visitors being referred by you
The third thing to do is to create awareness about my blog ( as the product you are promoting), and how do you intend to do that? There are various ways you can achieve this first
You can share your affiliate link with your friends on different groups and social media pages encouraging them to visit my blog, and it’s as simple as that, but the two most effective method is by creating contents on your blog and email list ( I will explain in a later post)
Alright, now you have a basic knowledge of affiliate marketing, with a standby blog, let’s us dive into how to become an affiliate marketer, how you can start as a novice and the best affiliate programs to consider
How do I become an Affiliate marketer
Its no rocket science, just like I used my blog, as an illustration, to become an affiliate marketer, there are two things you should understand first, you must be ready to write contents, on your blog. secondly, you should try to use or test run the product you are recommending
How to Start Affiliate Marketing as a Novice
First Set up a good blog: your blog is the best place to promote the affiliate products because this is the first place prospective customers will find useful information about the products or services they are about to purchase
Find a Good Affiliate Program
This is where most beginners will misstep and burn out, starting up any business or project is always demanding, affiliate marketing is easy but could be difficult if you are not focused by trying to be the jack of all trade
Do not make this mistake of signing up to a lot of affiliate programs at once, let me use an illustrative example; my blog niche is about ” internet business, how to make money online, empowerment and business ideas”, I will be overworking myself if I start recommending babies products, legal services, jewellery and clothing products
Experience has shown, you are 80% likely to succeed if you focus on a particular niche than targeting every product in a different niche on your blog
Your first step into affiliate marketing is to identify all those products which you are cool with promoting or have more knowledge about. A typical example of products which I will promote or recommend in my niche is Web hosting services, Domain Registrations, WordPress themes, SEO Tools, How to make money products e.t.c.
How to Identify a Good paying Affiliate Program
There are a lot of affiliate programmes out there in different niches, even in that particular topic you are more interested in writing before you can enrol in any affiliate program, as a beginner please ensure you answer these questions
Is my location or Country eligible?: Companies like ClickBank, for instance, do not accept Nigerians
What’re the Earnings Per Click?: it tells you how much you earn to refer visitors to the advertiser’s website, mostly for Pay per click affiliate programs
What’s their Commission rate?; your earning per sale or depending on the business metrics for reward should be between 5-30% it’s very reasonable though there are some affiliate program such as Bluehost that can pay more than 65% per account signup
What’s the Cookie Lenght?: Cookies are a piece of code which are used to track each sells from different affiliates, Most cookies last for 24hrs, others 30 days while some can last as much as 180 days or a lifetime, the longer the better because in customer acquisition cycle a customer might not actually buy such product on the spot, they might revisit the website in future
What’s the Minimum Payout?: Make no mistake this is very crucial, you need to consider this because some products might take a hell of an effort sell, your payments shouldn’t be delayed in the pretext of reaching minimum payout,
What’s The payment Method: Most affiliate programs pays you through Paypal or direct cheque, what if PayPal is not working in your location? though there are various methods you could use to create a Paypal account but you cannot be tiptoeing each time you are accessing Paypal so ensure its easier to receive your payment to avoid stories that touch
Best Paying Affiliate Programs to Join
Now that we are making our choices, for the products to promote I want you to focus on selecting products based on your blog niche, I grouped each of this affiliate program in different categories so it will be easier for you to select and get started
Dating Affiliate Programs
Surprisingly Dating affiliate programs has high conversion rate, the online dating ecosystem took off like wildfire and there is a different dating site for everyone, from divorcee, to single parents to old couples, blacks etc. if your blog topics are primary on love stories, relationships tips and how to find love advise then it will be grate you consider these affiliate programs
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To be Continued
Hi, I am Joshua Nwankwo, The CEO of Startup Ng and the founder of Afripals Interactive, Well I am a Civil Servant in Day time, a farmer at noontime and a Blogger in the evening.
My passion for being free from Government paychecks and also helping my fellow young people to be self-empowered is why I run this blog
An Animal Scientist by Profession and a blogger by passion, you can always reach me on my contact page for help or support